👋 مَرْحَبا*
Welcome to Wednesday, where Israel intensifies its attack on Rafah, South Africa votes in a high-stake election for the ruling ANC party, and North Korea taunts the South with balloons carrying trash. Meanwhile, Driss Rejichi in Inkyfada reports on Tunisia’s toughening of anti-migrant policies.
[*Marhaba - Lebanese]
💡 SPOTLIGHT
Why sex trafficking between Colombia and Mexico keeps flourishing
Trafficking people, especially for sex, between Colombia and Mexico is rife and rising, buoyed in part by pervasive social and media contempt for the working-class girls who are among the chief victims, writes Catalina Ruiz-Navarro in Bogotá-based daily El Espectador.
Some years back, there were reports of murders of a number of Colombian women in Mexico that went unpunished. In three cases — of Mile Virginia Martín, Stephanie Magón and Alejandra Pulido — the victims were physically similar, having voluptuous figures often associated with "desirable" Colombian women. They had traveled to Mexico after entry rules for Colombians were relaxed, with the aid of putative modeling agencies with similar names.
People who knew the girls said they were hoping to make it in Mexico as models or DJs. There were no prosecutions here perhaps in part for the way the murders were reported. Media simply parrotted the information prosecutors had given them, the girls were turned into stereotypes, if not objects, and their cases effectively dismissed due to their backgrounds and provenance. Being Colombian migrants, this must have been "just another" incident to do with cartels and drugs.
It seems prosecutors never looked into the possibility of this being a case of human trafficking, so we shall never know exactly why the three were killed. These and similar femicides often have interesting points in common, indicative of the practices of trafficking gangs working between the two countries.
We compiled an extensive report on the website Volcánicas on the workings of such networks. Mexico is the third biggest destination for Colombian people traffickers, with the number of victims rising sharply since 2021, in parallel with the country's increased militarization.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reports a rise of over 67% in human trafficking in Mexico in 2022, with a rise of just under 33% in trafficking for sexual exploitation. The figure is important as the gangs running these networks have diversified their interests into drugs and arms, which in turn expands the objectives of human trafficking. [...]
— Read the full article by Catalina Ruiz-Navarro for El Espectador, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“It’s finally here,” writes Johannesburg-based daily The Sowetan, as South Africa (or “Mzansi”, its colloquial name derived from the Xhosa language) gets ready to vote in a high-stakes election today. More than 27 million people are registered to participate in the election, which could see the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lose its majority for the first time since 1994, due to high unemployment and crime levels. Even so, current President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to remain in office, unless the party’s performance is worse than expected.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel intensifies attacks on Rafah despite international condemnation. The country has sent tanks for a second consecutive day of probing attacks on the city, defying an order from the International Court of Justice. Meanwhile, a World Health Organization mission has reached the north of Gaza for the first time in more than two weeks to deliver fuel, hospital beds, medicines and other medical supplies to the Al-Ahli hospital. Follow Worldcrunch’s international coverage of the war in Gaza here.
• Germany and France say Ukraine may strike Russian military targets. During a Franco-German defense and security council yesterday in Meseberg, northeastern Germany, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed that “if Ukraine is attacked, it can defend itself.” In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned this could lead to global escalation. Meanwhile, Sweden announced it would donate $1.23 billion in military aid to Ukraine — the largest package from the Nordic country so far.
• Georgian parliament overrides presidential veto of controversial “foreign influence” bill. The legislature dismissed on Tuesday the veto of President Salome Zourabichvili, who, along with other critics, said the bill will restrict media freedom and obstruct Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union. The legislation, which will be signed into law by the parliament speaker if the president doesn't do so in the next five days, has sparked weeks of protests in the South Caucasus nation.
• Haiti’s transitional council names Garry Conille prime minister. The decision was announced as the country is going through weeks of upheavals, with gangs terrorizing the capital of Port-au-Prince. Conille, who briefly served as Haiti’s prime minister from October 2011 to May 2012, has since worked as a regional director for UNICEF. For more on the situation in Haiti, read this analysis by France Inter’s Pierre Haski, translated from French by Worldcrunch.
• Thailand indicts former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on royal insult charges. Shinawatra, who returned home last year after 15 years in exile, will go on trial next month after authorities said he violated the country’s notoriously harsh royal insult law during an interview he gave in 2015 to a South Korean newspaper. Shinawatra, one of Thailand's most divisive figures, served as prime minister from 2001 to 2006.
• Colombia congress approves ban on bullfighting. The country’s lower house gave the bill the green light with a 93-2 vote on Tuesday, sending the bill to President Gustavo Petro for final approval. The ban will apply from 2027 on, after a three-year transition period to help families depending on it to find new sources of income. This will leave only seven nations in the world where bullfighting is still allowed: Ecuador, France, Portugal, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela. For more, we offer this Worldcrunch original: Traditional Rites With Animal Cruelty Spark New Debate Around The World.
• North Korea flies balloons carrying trash to the South. At least 260 balloons containing “filthy waste” — including toilet paper, dark soil, and batteries — were sent across the border, prompting South Korean authorities to warn its residents to stay indoors. This comes after North Korea warned it would retaliate against the “frequent scattering of leaflets and other rubbish” on the border by activists in the South.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
50 °C
Temperatures in Delhi hit a record high of 50 °C (122 °F) as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) reports “severe heatwave conditions” in India’s capital. The IMD warned of the heat’s impact on health and of potential water shortages, with Water Minister Atishi Marlena calling for “collective responsibility” in stopping wasteful water use. Forecasters predicted similar temperatures for Wednesday for the city of more than 30 million people and issued a red alert warning notice.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Tunisia's crackdown on African migrants — straight from the president
Arrests of migrants, camp destruction operations and searches of NGO premises: since the end of April, the anti-migrant policy has taken on an unprecedented scale, reports Driss Rejichi in Tunis-based independent media Inkyfada.
💥 At the end of April, several citizens were allegedly involved in violence targeting migrants. Videos posted on social media on the evening of May 5 show a firework mortar attack against a group of sub-Saharan people in Sfax. The city had already been the scene of violence in July 2023. In Sousse, people were filmed helping the police arresting migrants trying to escape a security campaign organized in the city on May 10, during which 58 migrants were arrested.
🚨 At the beginning of May, several people across the country were placed in police custody for having hosted undocumented people. In the meantime, arrest and search operations targeted associations working with migrants. Between May 3 and 7, the premises of at least four associations were raided, including the Tunisian Council for Refugees (CTR), Terre d'Asile Tunisie and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
🇪🇺 The EU diplomatic service finally reacted in a May 14 press release, communicating its concern over “the simultaneous arrests of several figures from civil society, journalists and political figures,” without mentioning the arrests of migrants. For Ben Amor, spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights, “The EU has managed to transfer the weight of the migration crisis to transit countries, through partnerships or donations, especially in the security area."
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📣 VERBATIM
“We have not seen them smash into Rafah.”
— White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday that Israel’s actions have not yet reached what the United States considers a “major ground operation” in Rafah, saying: “We have not seen them go in with large units, large numbers of troops in some sort of coordinated maneuver. That is a major ground operation. We have not seen that.” This is the most complete definition that the U.S. has provided of what constitutes a “major ground operation” that could cross a red line and lead to a change in U.S. policy towards Israel.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
Supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump seen outside court in Manhattan during the closing arguments in the Trump hush money trial. Prosecutors and defense lawyers delivered closing arguments to the jury yesterday, after more than four weeks. Trump’s defense lawyers spoke first in the closing arguments, which lasted over two hours and focused on issues surrounding Trump’s former “fixer” Michael Cohen. Prosecutors then spent six hours refuting claims made by the defense, highlighting the validity of certain witnesses, Trump's business practices and election concerns. The 12 person jury is set to begin deliberating today, but it could be days or even weeks before they come to a decision. — Photo: Carlos Chiossone/ZUMA
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✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet and Ione Gildroy
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